Can wants to guarantee that the expert opinion ordered by the judge Juan Jose Escalonilla in November 2021 within the framework of the Neuron case collect all the services and material prepared by the Mexican consultant for the party in the electoral campaign for the April 2019 elections and that were accredited by two Neurona workers in their declarations of the past months of May and June.
This was requested this Wednesday by the defense of the leader of Podemos Juan Manuel del Olmowhich recalls that the Provincial Court of Madrid was in favor of expanding the object of the expert opinion once the testimonials had been carried out via a rogatory commission to Mexico “because waiting for their practice would entail a delay in the investigation, which is in itself incompatible with what is stated in the LOREG [Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General]”, is stated in the pronouncement of the Court.
Judge Escalonilla investigates the Podemos contract with the Neurona consultancy, which cost 363,000 euros from the party’s own funds, under the suspicion that it was a fictitious contract that hid alleged illegal financing. Vox is represented in the case.
Thus, with the support of the Madrid Court, Podemos asks Judge Escalonilla to take into account as the object of the expert report that he requested almost a year ago, and about which the Prosecutor’s Office expressed little confidence, that he collect all the work of the consultant identified by witnesses Waldemar Aguado and Germán Cobo.
Aguado accredited how the work of analysis, programming, design and layout of the website of the electoral coalition United We Can; consultancy for the development of a graphic identity for the electoral campaign, among whose main functions was the elaboration of the coalition logo; on the elaboration of the posters of the candidates; and collaboration with the match team on product design
addressed to the social networks.
As for Cobo, Neurona’s adviser, he confirmed that the services related to the strategic consultancy, demographics and ‘big data’.
Since November 2021, the head of the 42nd Investigating Court of Madrid, Juan José Escalonilla, has been pending. Expert opinion on the cost of services provided by Neurona workers for Podemos in the electoral campaign for the April 2019 elections. The report has not yet started due to the difficulties that the magistrate is encountering in finding experts to undertake the work, as this newspaper reported last June.
The expert “will include the assessment of the segmentation strategy work prior to the editing or making of the videos and their quantity and quality, the latter aspect, that of quality, also to be taken into account in relation to the designs”, it is stated in the order of November 2021. The judge wants to know if Podemos paid an excessive price and for this he also wants to investigate the quality of the services provided by Neurona, something that is presumed difficult to assess, as the Prosecutor’s Office ventured.
Last May, Judge Escalonilla asked the Interprofessional Union of the Community of Madrid, an entity that brings together 42 professional associations, to appoint a trained expert to undertake the report. But from this entity the court was informed on Tuesday that “there is no specialty and/or subspecialty within the professional associations that make up this association with the knowledge to issue the requested expert opinion.” Since then, there is no news regarding the expertise.
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